My mother loves tabbouleh. And given how healthy it is, it's not such a bad food to love. Except that she made it a lot. As in, after I moved out, I avoided it at all costs. I'd grown up with a tabbouleh overload.

In ancient times B.V.G. (Before Video Games), here's how kids played: Take all your toys _ dolls, soldiers, cars, blocks, that thing you got from a cereal box _ and dump them on the floor. Forget about logic or plot consistency because the most important goal is to create an entertaining adventure. (My neighborhood is still reeling from the sordid G.I. Joe-Barbie affair of 1974.)

The president and CEO of NPR is stepping down after less than two years to take a similar position at the National Geographic Society, the public radio organization's board of directors announced Monday.

Lee Thompson Young, who began his acting career as the teenage star of the Disney Channel's "The Famous Jett Jackson" and was featured in the film "Friday Night Lights" and the series "Rizzoli & Isles," was found dead Monday, police said. He was 29.

A German visitor who lost her arm in a shark attack while snorkeling off Maui was on life support, a hospital spokeswoman said Monday, a day after a Big Island surfer suffered leg injuries in Hawaii's second shark attack in less than a week.